Welcome to Gaia! ::

Once in its grasp, the Terra Expanse swallowed up the world around it, walling off those encompassed within it like insects in a jagged, deep bowl of rock and wind.

Immediately after learning of Araceli’s pregnancy — and combined with the fact that she had been harassed during his time gone — Detraeus’ desire to move house spiked tenfold. He wanted her out. The city was not safe. No one but a select few were trustworthy, and if they were to rear children, he wanted a place he could defend. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere high. Somewhere deep, and hidden. Somewhere empty. Araceli liked very few, if any of those prospects.

At Ara’s counter-insistence, they remained behind for a period of approximately five days, laying out the most basic ideas for the sort of house they would want to build if (and when) they did relocate. They discussed issues, benefits, and drawbacks. Detraeus rarely left her side, and in the meantime doted on her hand and foot, his mind still half in shock and disbelief at the turn of events. It felt impossible to him, to think that she carried their children in her, and yet at the same time so overwhelmingly real that it took up all but his every waking thought.

After the five days of wait and discussion, and with Lithian and Casseth in company, they made their way into the mountains. Each brought hastars, though — other than Ara, who rode more — the beasts were used mostly for bearing the brunt of the weight in baggage, and only occasionally for transport. They set out near sunrise, much to Casseth’s chagrin, and travelled for the full bulk of the day, progressing steadily inwards and gradually upwards as the ‘valleys’ between mountains became high points in juxtapose to other dips, which were in turn higher still than most of the desert itself, which lay largely flat and close to sea level.

As night fell, they settled in one such valley to make camp.

After tethering her beast, Detraeus moved up beside Ara, offering a hand to help her down. “You’re well?” he asked, eyes skimming her, on alert for any signs of stress — particularly concerned after a full day’s travel. The only other option, however — to leave her behind — was far less acceptable, and he could thus only live with the circumstances they had. “Not hurting? Or dizzy? And can you eat?”

“Some water, first,” Lithian suggested from beside him, already working to help Casseth unload some of their bedding supplies and glancing around for potential sources of wood for a fire. “We can get started on dinner as soon as we have some kindling…”

With Casseth’s gathered wood, Lithian made quick work of casting a rudimentary firani spell, learned from a tome, and bringing a fire to life over the tinder. By the time it was burning steadily and all of their bedding and meal supplies were set up, the stars glimmered overhead in full bloom. Around them, the mountains — previously yellow-orange, brown-red, and rocky — had begun to show more signs of life: more frequent spurts of shrubbery and, at their current altitude, a healthy smattering of small trees with more further up. It was also notably cooler, and as the sun dropped, so too did the air temperature, making the fire appealing for its heat as well as its use for cooking.

While the fire process was underway, Detraeus shed approximately half of his weapons — though he kept most of them readily available around the fur Ara had set up for their bedding — and moved in in front of her. After reaching for her boot and glancing up to her for silent permission, Detraeus removed both, and started in on a gradual process of kneading out any tension he found in her feet, tendons around her ankles, or calves.

Meanwhile, Lithian stared at the fire and rubbed a horn, frowning before glancing to Cas. “Well, we uh…we have food, I just…have you actually…cooked over a fire before…? When we were in Aisko, you mostly handled it…or we ate the dried stuff.” He glanced to Ara. “I think a full meal would be good, though.”

Detraeus grunted and shifted his gaze up to Ara’s face as he smoothed his hands down her leg. He dipped to kiss her knee. “I am good at making meat not raw,” he said. “No promises it will not be part ash if I ‘cook.’”

Detraeus shut his mouth and flushed. He had been fully ready to insist she could rest, but the offer of help appealed to him, so he nodded, and together, they got to work. It took some doing, but with the meat ready and some food already pre-made, it was only a matter of cooking a few things and warming the rest, and in a half hour, all were eating. The smells of cooked meat and spices lingered in the air, the heat of the fire a pleasant contrast to the crisp n** of the mountain night, and the gentle crackle of the fire provided a quiet backdrop the more distant sound of the valley winds and native wildlife.

After finishing his own meal, Detraeus settled half beside, half behind Ara, his tail coiled protectively over her and hand resting idly at her hip, fingers just grazing the new rise of her belly. Across from them, Lithian hummed, leaning a fraction against Cas and smiling.

“It’s been some time since we’ve been out of town. I have to admit, this sort of ‘adventure’ is less trying than one through snow that comes up to one’s knees…” He glanced towards Cas from beneath his lashes, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Not that I can complain where that particular escapade landed me. Do you two have any specific plans for the house? Or how deep in you want it?” His eyes panned over the surrounding area: sweeping mountains as far as the eye could see, deep canyons, and wilderness. “You will certainly…have a lot of space to yourselves…”

Detraeus flushed as Ara wriggled against him, but happily resituated to fit her more comfortably in his lap. As she did, his arms settled around around her, palms over her stomach, and when she stilled, he kissed her shoulder, listening to her speak.

“We can,” Lithian said after she finished, “though…it’ll help if we can find a water source. Perhaps if we’re lucky, we’ll come on a more suitable spot tomorrow. There’s some reservoirs of ground water around here, but thanks to the nearness of the desert, even that is limited, and most everything is dry as the sand around Taliuma. Things are getting more green as we work deeper in, though. At the very least, I’m sure we can find something more sizeable underground and, if we’re lucky, something on the surface. If we find you a river, even a small one, you won’t have to worry as much about a well, and will have an easier bathing source. Less spellwork, too, to get it into your house.”

“Overlook,” Detraeus grunted, words half muddled by Ara’s hair, and Lithian blinked.

“Pardon?”

“If we are high,” Detraeus said, “I want a place from which to kill things which do not belong.”

“Ah.” Lithian cleared his throat and shifted his position. “Well. I’m sure we can…work with that idea.” He glanced to Cas. “Casseth will be doing most of the ‘groundwork,’ forgive the phrasing.” After looking up to the sky though, and then back to Ara, Lithian rubbed his arms and changed the subject. “It’s getting chilly, and late, and you must be exhausted, Ara. Are you nauseous at all? Do you want me to check over you before we turn in?”

Lithian shook his head. “Never,” he said, already standing and moving over.

Detraeus watched attentively as Lithian worked. His tail flicked away, and he remained close, but it didn’t bother him, he realized, to see Lithian check over her. Most healers, at this point, Detraeus wouldn’t have wanted within fifty feet of her, not trusting them to put their hands on her, let alone their magic, and most men, in particular, made his hackles bristle when he thought of them breathing her air. But Lithian was something else. Inherently non-threatening, at least when it came to Ara, and though Detraeus still didn’t strictly like him, he ‘trusted’ him insofar as putting Araceli’s interests first was concerned.

He did not move far, though, only just enough to be out of Lithian’s way, and he kept a hand on Ara’s back as Lithian’s magic glowed, rippling through his fingers and over her belly. It made him almost envious, to think of how close Lithian got to be to his children in this way — to feel their energy, their heartbeats, their magic in tune with his — but Detraeus tucked the thought away. He would be there for them in the physical sense, protecting their well-being from now until his final breath. When Lithian leaned back and smiled, Detraeus’ shoulders relaxed.

“They’re very healthy,” Lithian reported. “And growing so fast, it’s amazing. Already bigger than last I looked. Get some rest,” he said, “and we can get them out for a little more adventure tomorrow…and hopefully a site for a house.” He squeezed her shoulder gently before rising and moving over to Casseth.

Detraeus pointedly ignored as Lithian pulled Casseth into a kiss, and turned his focus to Ara as he arranged himself more appropriately on the bedding for sleeping. “Cold?” he asked, glancing to her and wondering if they would need more furs.

Night passed, chilly, into a warm morning, and Detraeus awoke with Araceli curled against him. The small band rose, prepared and ate breakfast, and then re-packed, starting off again, deeper still into the mountains. It was late morning, edging in towards noon, when Lithian stopped them in their path through a lower valley, reporting a surprisingly large water source quite some ways up a nearby peak. After only brief debate, they started up it. By midday, with the sun at its highest point in the sky overhead, they arrived in a higher valley — a geographical ‘hammock’ between two split peaks — with a small, but definite lake stretched out before them, caught in the bowl between the mountains.

Detraeus stretched his wings, doing his best to curb the eager rush of his pulse as he surveyed the surrounding area. A much healthier supply of trees garnished the area, several grooves in the land trailing upwards further still from the banks of the lake, and multiple prospective areas existed where a house could be built either on flatland, or into the rolling mountainside as Casseth had suggested earlier. The lake’s bank and the ‘valley’ that it rested in overlooked a steeper, drop down into the valleys below and a bird’s eye view of a great swath of the surrounding mountains.

Easily accessible water. Plenty of areas for an available and practical overlook to keep watch. Defensible. Large and flat enough to give soon-to-come children plenty of room to run and play. And secluded. But, particularly if they could eventually manage to claim right to a mount capable of flight, they would be within reasonably easy access of town also — simply difficult to find for anyone who didn’t know where to look.

It was, in Detraeus’ mind, perfect. He glanced up to Ara.

“Well,” Lithian said, stilling his own hastar and glancing out over the scenery, “it does have a lovely view…and you couldn’t ask for a more convenient water source. If nothing else, a lunch stop? I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m famished, and that lake is looking lovely if anyone besides me is in the mood for a swim…”

At Ara’s response, the nervous tension in Detraeus’ shoulders dissipated, and immediately, his mind jumped back to work: surveying the area, imagining where they could build, what they could build, and how to go about it. He felt all but giddy, eagerly drawing in the details and swimming over possibilities. They set up camp again, cooked, ate, and cooled off in the small lake, Detraeus’ thoughts all the while spinning over the surrounding area and its potential.

While Ara dried and she and Lithian talked, he took a more thorough survey of land with Casseth, voicing his thoughts, getting feedback, and then bringing them back to Ara for her input. By mid-evening, they had settled on the location as the basis for a permanent home, and he and Casseth began discussion and groundwork for where exactly to place the would-be house and how to go about setting up the foundation.

In the meantime, Lithian started preliminary spellwork on the lake, laying spell runes for cleansing, purification, and poison wards. While the water was fresh and suitable for swimming, he advised not to drink excessively from it immediately and give the magic time to work its way through. With the help of the runes, it would be definitively suitable for drinking and receive a cyclical purge on the rotation of the spells. Fish could still inhabit it, and with the right equipment, they might well catch many a meal from it if they cared to. By the time the sun sank behind the mountains and the air began to chill, they had a plot set up and laid out, a skeleton plan down, and room to expand built in as well as a pristine lake and preliminary plans for getting water accessible directly from the house.

They remained for the next day and partly into the one after before the necessity for rudimentary supplies other than those immediately available became pertinent. At that point, they started back. Over the course of the next several months, they made multiple, longer trips back, including one with Kilian and Vallarah in tow, the part-ysali hybrid having volunteered to help encourage greenery in their landscaping. She poured magic into the soil around the lake, house, and surrounding grounds, bolstering fertility and quality there as well as — with Lithian’s help — working with the groundwater so that it could be accessed from a broader spread of the area and support a greater concentration of plant life.

She also brought seeds with her.

With the help of her company, she planted several varieties of fruit trees near to the house and another few closer to the lake. She planted lines of berry bushes, and fresh vegetables as well as a spice and herb garden — filled with ample types usable for everything from cooking to multiple types of natural healing — climbing vines around the walls of the house, and nut trees. While many things would take years to grow in fully, a good portion would come in sooner, bringing further life to the valley bowl and promising prospects for the future.